updated 05:00 am EST, Wed November 9, 2011

NVIDIA Tegra 3, offers 3x performance over Tegra 2

NVIDIA has formally unveiled its Tegra 3 quad-core processor. The company claims that with the launch of the chip, it has "ushered in the era of quad-core mobile computing" with the availability of the new chip. NVIDIA says that the new ARM Cortex A9-based system-on-a-chip (SOC) offers up to 3 times the graphics performance of its Tegra 2 dual-core predecessor, and uses up to 61 percent less power.

The Tegra 3 quad-core processor also marks its design with a fifth supplementary core that handles low-level tasks in order to help preserve battery power. When more demanding tasks are thrown at it, it dynamically ramps up performance accordingly.

NVIDIA also used the announcement to promote the impending launch of the ASUS Transformer Prime docking tablet, which will be the first quad-core tablet available on the market showcasing the new technology. It is claimed to have a 12-hour battery life and its tablet component will be just 8.3mm thin.